


The Apprentice

by orphan_account



Category: Suits (TV), The Apprentice
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-04-02
Updated: 2012-04-02
Packaged: 2017-11-02 23:02:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/374335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mike and Harvey are both candidates on The Apprentice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Apprentice

**Author's Note:**

> I had to go with the british Apprentice as I know nothing about the American one, will explain why Harvey and Mike have ended up in Britain.

Harvey surveyed the other eleven candidates; this was going to be easy. Of course they were all pretending to exude confidence. Talking about their “unbeatable sales ability” and how they “were the whole package” and of course most common “I am Lord Sugar’s apprentice.” They were all the best, had the best experience, would be the best choice. Harvey wasn’t worried. For what Harvey was unmistakeably the best at was reading people and beneath their arrogant, self-appreciation Harvey could read the nerves, could almost feel the insecurities. These people weren’t really confident; they were just used to painting confidence over their feelings of inadequacies. Harvey knew he was no better really. He’d given the usual spiel in the pre-interview, talked himself up for the cameras. But at least he was aware of it. Not that he didn’t think he could win. These kids had no idea of the real world, that much was clear. And Harvey didn’t have the reputation as the best closer in New York for nothing.

They were waiting outside of Lord Sugar’s office, camera crew shooting emotional close ups of them looking pensive and worried, probably zooming in on the sweater in the blue suit. Harvey focused in on each of the candidates, assessing the level of competition. He’d always believed in first impressions and needed to quickly create a game plan of how to handle the other eleven possibilities. There was the sweater in the blue suit, probably cost about £300, not as cheap as some but nothing on Harvey’s level. And you would assume that you’d wear your best today which meant the rest were cheaper. Two of the other men were in expensive but boring suits, clearly not made for the individual; one was in a custom made ridiculously garish suit while the final man was in some god-awful cheap number with a terrible skinny tie. The women; two were wearing power suits, masculine in style, one an expensive skirt-suit, high waisted and fashionable, one had squeezed herself into a suite two small for her and two had forgone them all together for smart dresses.

So men: one recently made redundant, only one good interview suit left, a fairly good job but nothing brilliant; two accountants/managers/something else boring and conventional; one no idea how to dress professionally, probably a nightmare with a terrible sense of humour; one kid who had obviously never had a decent job in his life. Women: two chips on their shoulders, trying to survive in a man’s world; one knows she’s pretty and how to use it; one insecure, recently let herself go and two not used to working in the corporate world. 

Clothes maketh the man, Harvey had been taught this from a very young age, but sometimes you needed to look deeper than that. Sweater was obviously nervous with an unfortunate body condition which gave it away, one expensive but boring kept putting at his collar, the other was tapping his foot nervously. Garish had a thin layer of “comfortable” over his terrified and skinny tie had wide eyes and looked like he wondered how he had ended up here. The women all had their ticks too. So, all nervous to varying degrees, not necessarily a weakness, you’d be stupid not to be nervous in this situation really. 

The wait was over; in an overplayed shot Lord Sugar (although how could you really think of him as anything but Sir Alan) rang through to his secretary and asked her to send the candidates into the room. Harvey watched them all carefully as they entered the board room; taking note of the women who purposefully wouldn’t take the chairs, no doubt under the impression it was some powerful feminist statement. They lined up on their side of the table, Nick and Karen Brady (like everyone Harvey took a moment to mourn anew Margret retiring) staring at them and waited for Lord Sugar. His actual entrance was almost an anti-climax, a testament to the power of a good soundtrack, but Harvey could feel the level of tension around the room double. The people standing stood a little bit straighter, the people sitting sat a little bit straighter and the nervous fiddlers made a conscious effort to still their wondering hands. 

Lord Sugar took his seat and then ran his eyes over them, judging and considering, he was likely as much a believer in first impressions as Harvey was. He didn’t speak for a moment and the silence hung heavy and unnatural, no one daring to break it.

“Good morning,” he said finally.

“Good morning, Lord Sugar,” twelve voice repeated back to him, while Harvey noted the strain in the voice of garish next to him. 

Lord Sugar passed his eyes over them again and then addressed them with a version of his usual speech. “Now I know that many of you will have seen this show before and may think you’ve got is sussed. Let me tell you: you haven’t. I can weed out bullshit quicker than anyone. So I don’t want to hear about how you are a “pragmatic thinker” or how you “actualise possibilities.” In fact I’m not interested in what I hear at all: I’m interested in what I see. What Karen and Nick see. And let me tell you now, I am not interested in anyone who hides, I will root you out and you will be gone quicker than anyone.”

All the candidates were nodding in a way that seemed to imply that what Lord Sugar was saying applied to everyone else but them and they were just sagely agreeing with what he had to say. This was why Harvey had applied to the show, because he respected Lord Sugar, he believed him when he said he didn’t stand for bullshit and he liked where the man had come from. Obviously a position with Lord Sugar wasn’t exactly a step up for him but at least it would be a completely new challenge.

Once Lord Sugar had dispensed with his customary intro he moved on to their first challenge. Boys vs. girls on the first challenge, everybody knew that and it normally had something to do with business enterprise. Harvey waited.

“Now, first task is simple, don’t over complicate it. I am going to give you £200 for starting money and you are going to use it to start your own cleaning business. What you do, how you do it, is completely up to you. And it’s simple; the team that make the most money win and out of the team that lose, one of you is getting fired.”

They’d been given a room in Lord Sugar’s offices to make decisions and plan how they were going to make sure they were the winning team. Six men, all after one job, pretending that they were a team and going to be friends. The first thing to decide was what the team was going to be called, Harvey didn’t care, that was just window dressing as far as he was concerned. There was a brief discussion in which Trevor (garish) suggested Triumph, Harvey almost had to speak up but thankfully Howard (one of expensive but boring) shouted it down and suggested Vitality. This seemed generally acceptable. 

Then of course there was the next Apprentice Staple: who was going to be project manager. Nobody spoke. Harvey understood why people did not want to put themselves in the firing line in the first week but he also knew about people. If you wanted to be top dog then you had to assert yourself from the beginning, there was no way Harvey was prepared to follow instructions from any of these men until he had established his own dominance. So naturally he spoke up.

“I’m happy to do it.” 

Five relieved eyes looked his way and there was general nodding. No one even asked what experience or qualities he felt he had to recommend him for the job. They were just grateful for the reprieve for one week.

“Right,” Harvey started, pleased that it had gone without a hitch. “The first thing we need to decide is what type of cleaning service we want to deliver.”

More nodding and everyone seemed to make a conscious effort to look like they were thinking. They had been given a list of cleaning products available to buy and had to make their orders from this book before they left. They had also been given the use of a van.

“I think we should clean cars,” Howard suggested. “It means we can set up anywhere and we can do it while people are shopping or at work.”

Harvey opened his mouth to agree that this was a good idea but Mike (Skinny tie) got there first with. “It wouldn’t be cost effective, the cleaning products for cars are specialist and we’d have to clean to such a high standard that it would take a long time. Also, most car washes as £5 so people are not going to pay a great deal more than that. Even if we managed to find enough customers, based on revenue and time we’d only be looking at a maximum of £200 profit.”

The room as a whole, including Karen just looked at him, they’d only looked at the prices for a second, surely that was just guess work. Harvey looked at him closely; no it appeared, if Harvey was as good at reading people as he thought he was, that Mike was deadly certain on those figures. The others were impressed but trying their best not to show it. 

Harvey had no problem giving credit where credit was due. He smiled at the kid. “Well done Mike, that’s pretty quick work on the figures.”

“I’m good with numbers,” Mike replied simply, shifting a little at the direct focus that was now on him.

The sight of him anxiously moving on his chair sent a little tendril of lust through Harvey which he immediately clamped down on. He couldn’t afford to be in any way distracted by some pretty kid.

“How about house cleaning?” Louis (newly redundant) suggested.

Instinctively everyone looked to Mike who shrugged. “It would have a good profit margin but I don’t see it working out, why would be let strangers into their home?”

“For one simple reason,” Harvey replied. “The cameras. People will see the cameras and they will jump at the chance to be on TV.” Harvey’s sure this but will be edited out of the programme. “We just need to pick the right area, somewhere where people stay at home to raise their children. We clean houses for women at home, make it seem like a treat.”

No one seemed to offer any objection to that, Harvey sounded too sure of himself to argue with. Harvey smiled at his team, pleased. He was glad that there wasn’t going to be any major objection, it would only waste time.

“We need to get moving,” Harvey said. “Any time we waste planning is time we could be cleaning. Mike, can you work out a projection of costs and our profit margin?”

Mike nodded. No one doubted he could do it. Mike quickly worked out, without checking any of the number sheets again, the amount of product they would need to buy and how long they could give to each house and what they would make.

“It makes sense to me to charge per hour,” Mike spoke up with. “If we change for a service people could keep us there all day. If we offer an hours cleaning for £20 we know how long we will be there and there will be no come backs.”

Harvey nodded, it was a good idea, one disconcertingly he hadn’t thought of.

“We’ll split into two teams, how much cleaning do you reckon we’ll get done?” Harvey asked, practically ignoring the rest of the group.

Simon (other half of boring suits) seemed a little affronted by this and answered instead. “Well, we’ll have about five hours left today and 9 hours tomorrow, that’s 28 sessions so £560 pound.”

Harvey was about to answer when Mike interrupted. “No, that would assume we were cleaning for all that time, we’ve got to factor in getting the clients and travelling from one house to another. If we factor all that in we’re probably looking at between £450 and £500.”

“Do you think that will be enough to win?” Trevor asked. “Because it sounds like a shit amount to me.”

Harvey turned a cold gaze on him; he didn’t like profanity at work when it wasn’t necessary. And he didn’t like it when people fell back on swearing to combat their own ignorance. 

“It obviously depends of what the girls do,” Howard offered.

Mike nodded his agreement at Howard. “I think Trevor might be right, it’s not quite enough. Maybe we should raise the price to £25 an hour, it will mean an extra £140.”

Harvey nodded his agreement and looked at his team. He needed to split it into a sub team. It made sense to put Mike on the other team and put him in charge of buying the products but Harvey wanted to enjoy his company for the next two days. He pushed this idea aside however, because he was better at business than that.

“Mike, Howard and Trevor (because he couldn’t stand his company for a day) you can head down and get our supplies. Myself, Simon and Louis will go out and try to find an appropriate area to start booking appointments.”

No one made any objections to that. They separated and Harvey took his team into an area of London that he knew to be mostly housewives. Harvey was strangely relieved to know that Mike was on the other team, he felt like the job would get done properly. 

They went door to door drumming up appointments, Simon and Louis watching with a mix of jealousy and admiration as Harvey charmed housewife after housewife into booking an appointment. They were lucky he had to admit, they were able to book several appointments near each other which meant they would save time travelling. 

It only took an hour for Mike and the others to return with the cleaning products and they set out in their two groups to clean houses. It was a long day, cleaning was hard work and Harvey was soon tired of flirting with bored housewives. It wasn’t helped by the fact that Simon was as dull as ditch water and Louis was bordering on depressive. But they got through it. 

They met up with the other team to return to the house at the end of the day. The other team seemed as tired as he did and couldn’t help but notice that Mike looked particularly tired. 

When they reached the house he waited until Mike left the living room where they all had been chatting and followed into the dining room. Mike looked surprised to see that he’d followed him and almost a little uncomfortable that they were suddenly alone.

“How was today?”

“Fine,” Mike said, eyes darting nervously to the door.

Harvey raised an eyebrow. “Look kid, you’re good with numbers, I’m good with people. I know there’s something wrong, what is it?”

Mike looked once more at the door then back at Harvey. “Let’s just say Trevor is rather wearing after a while, I think he was putting people off a bit.”

Harvey nodded seriously. The weak link, clearly. “Well hopefully we won’t be stuck with him very long.”

Mike smiled a little at that and nodded. Harvey wished he could find another reason for them to stay and talk, just the two of them but he knew he had to get back to his team. They went back together into the living room and Harvey made a special effort to watch Trevor. He was simply ridiculous Harvey realised, loud, brash and ignorant. He watched the way Trevor dealt with the people around him, the way he tried to dominate with underlying aggression. Harvey knew it was bullshit and nothing he couldn’t deal with. He just hoped it wouldn’t damage the rest of the team. He’d let it go for now. 

He went to bed, wishing that he was sharing a room with Mike instead of boring Howard and went to sleep. They woke early, joking with the girls about the task, before leaving to get on with more appointments. Luckily Harvey’s charm on the previous day had meant that they had plenty of jobs lined up. Again Harvey’s day was productive but boring. By the end of it he swore he would never clean anything again. 

They met up at the board room, where everyone was straightening their clothes. There was a tension palatable between the girls and none of them were talking. They all took their places to wait and Harvey looked around at his team. He had to prepare himself for the possibility that they had lost. Who could he bring back in? The ideas had all been his and people had run with them. He couldn’t very well unload the blame onto someone else. Trevor for his general unpleasantness, he could sell that his attitude to clients had damaged their team but whom else? 

Before he had a chance to say anything they were called into Lord Sugar’s office. They trailed in and took their places, cameras in position, ready for the close-ups. 

“Right, Vitality,” Lord Sugar said, turning to Harvey and the boys. “Who was Project Manager?”

“I was, Lord Sugar,” Harvey replied clearly.

“You volunteered?”

Harvey nodded.

Lord Sugar seemed pleased. “And was he a good project manager?”

There was a general murmur of agreement and Mike spoke up with a “very good.” And if Harvey had been a teenage girl he would have sworn that his heart skipped a beat at the sound of Mike’s praise. 

Alan Sugar nodded again. “And what was your idea?”

Harvey outlined the plan, praising Mike in turn for his quick work on the numbers. Lord Sugar glanced over at Mike at that, assessing him.

Then he turned to the girls, they had called themselves “Serenity” and Marsha (recently let herself go) had been PM after much debate from the girls. Not all the girls had been impressed. It sounded like there had been a lot of arguments between the team and it sounded like this had not gone well for the job. They seemed to have spent most of the first day debating what they should do until they had finally decided on cleaning offices. This had enabled them to charge a lot for a job but it had also meant that they had grossly underestimated the time they would need to do the job. And it appeared that the office had not been particularly pleased with the outcome and had not been willing to pay the total bill.

Harvey’s team won £625 pound to £310. The guys around him all cheered, Harvey just smiled, surprised at how relieved he felt. They left the girls to the cheap café and the nerve wracking board room and went for their treat. Which was cocktails at one of London’s local bars.

When they arrived at the bar Harvey made sure that he was seated by Mike.

They made their first drinks, did the customary toast for the cameras and once they were settled drinking Harvey slid his chair closer to Mike. Mike looked slightly alarmed at how near Harvey now was to him and looked very much like he wanted to slide back. But he didn’t.

“Well done for today,” Harvey said with a smile.

Mike grinned, looking delighted at the praise and Harvey had the resist the sudden urge to simply kiss Mike. He remembered the cameras and managed to hold back.

“How did you get so good at numbers?” Harvey lowered his voice to an intimate level, like they were on a date.

“I don’t know, I’ve just always been good at them,” he was looking shyly at Harvey now, completely different from how he was on the task. It made the desire to kiss him all the harder to resist.

“Well, aren’t you just the living example of the phrase “not just a pretty face”,” Harvey said with an obvious leer.

And Mike blushed beautifully at that. Harvey might well have given in to the urge if offensive Trevor had not crashed into them at that moment, sliding his chair between them and wrapping an arm around Mike. Harvey watched at Mike flinched under the touch and Harvey had to resist the urge to rip Trevor off him. He was not here to get laid. 

He made himself spend the rest of the evening talking to all of the guys and tried not to focus his attention on Mike especially. What he needed to do now was start to think about Task 2 and the next stage of his game plan.


End file.
